New Age of Sense and Sensibility!

My 2012 Christmas Message: New Age of Sense and Sensibility!
     I waited until today, December 22, 2012 to write my Christmas Message. After all if the Doomsday people had been correct, there would be no Christmas 2012. But I believe and pray that the Mayans were correct in that today is the first day of a new era! And what I pray about that new era is that this world that has gone mad with greed and hatred would return to being a world of Sense and Sensibility.
    Just think what it would be like to have leaders in government, religion, finances, business, education, military, marketing, entertainment and every other profession show us common folk some good old fashion common sense and sensibility about decency about everything.  Instead of “what’s in it for me?” let it be, “what does this do for my neighbor?”
    In my faith my Holy Scripture teaches in John 3:17, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” And Jesus’ basic message was we are called to respect our fellow beings on this planet we call Earth. Respect regardless of the differences to us. Respect as to their well being in regards to my acts and belief in life.
    This Christmas let us make our gift the acceptance of a new era, as predicted by the ancient Mayans, and live lives that reflect Sense and Sensibility in all things! If we can maybe Christmas will last all year long! Have a Great New Year and a New Era!

Holy Days and Pagan Days

  It’s that time of the year. Where do we draw the line between “Christian” and “pagan” customs, such as Halloween, Christmas, and Easter? These three more popular special days all have a connection to some “pagan holiday” in terms of time of the year and the kind of celebration. The only holy day (holiday) that is nearly pure in its Christian origin is Pentecost (A Jewish Holy Day), which celebrates the birth of the first church.
  So what should I do about these pagan slanted days and my own faith? Should I support them, boycott them vigorously, ignore them, or keep them in perspective with my faith and ethics?
  In my youth I understood from my particular church that they were against a or any special day for celebrating Christmas, and if I recall, it also felt the same about Easter. I don’t recall anything big about Halloween. Our town always had a great big Halloween party on Front Street with awards for best kinds of costumes, vats to dunk for apples, cider and powdery donuts, and lots of pumpkin jack-o-lanterns.
  But even though our church didn’t celebrate Christmas and Easter, almost all of the members did. We just looked upon it as a cultural holiday. As I have matured, I have seen how that distinction has greatly expanded. Christmas and Easter are Special Marketing seasons for American retailers. Their coffers have benefitted from these celebrations. Our economy depends upon them.
  When was Jesus born? Exactly what happened at Easter? Neither question is of concern to the retailers celebration. That is why in most Churches we take a special evening and a special morning to celebrate these events within the walls of our church. That is my major separation.
  Paul taught the followers of Christ that they are in the world, but not of it. So my special religious events are celebrated with my own people, and I don’t impose them on others.
  In turn I can pick and choose within my own society or culture which special days I want to celebrate and which ones I don’t. It is the same option I had when I lived in or visited other countries. I found some of the Greek, Mexican, German, and Israeli holidays to be great fun! I enjoyed getting to know the people in the places where I traveled. I never once took on their celebrations as my own.
  The same is true in my own country. When I walk around and feel surrounded by the retail Christmas, which starts in early October, I don’t take them on as my own. They are popular, so somebody must like them.
  I don’t believe there can ever be a culture totally based on one set of religious standards. Ever where I look, I see “religious based countries” with deep religious divisions within themselves. Unfortunately the religious bullies try to reign over the others, and ruin it for all. I see this today in the major Moslem movements throughout the world. They don’t care to share their space with anyone different.
  So where do I draw the line between religious and cultural celebrations? I keep the religious ones within my religious body, and pick and chose which cultural ones I will celebrate. Let’s see I love chocolate bunnies, powdered donuts, and cider. I hate the loneliness and stress I see in people around our retail orientated Christmas, because suicides increase and people go deep in debt to satisfy children seduced by clever marketing tools. It is a season of depressions of all kinds.
  In my life there is no line needed between pagan and Christian, because they are two separate worlds. In my spiritual world a man’s word is honored. It ain’t so in the one where I now live.

Angels Are Real But Not Like the Paintings
Angels are a hot topic these days for TV and publishers. It isn’t uncommon to hear conversations about whether or not people even believe in angels.
  Discussions, such as that, are a waste of time. But it would be the same in a laboratory if someone asked do we believe in atoms. No one has ever seen them, so why can’t we question it? Growth in the scientific world is built upon collected data. As long as the data supports previous conclusions we can continue accepting it as a fact, not a belief. Believing says, “I hope this or that.” Fact says, “I know this much to be true.”
  In Hebrew the word is malak. In Greek the word is angelos. Both words  mean messenger. I don’t mean I believe they mean messenger, I know from fact they mean messenger. Their most common use in Scripture denotes spiritual and superhuman beings, who are messengers from God. There are only a few books of the 66 books in the Bible that do not mention these messengers (malak or angelos): Ruth, Nehemiah, Esther, the epistles of John and James. The doctrine of these messengers or angels became more distinct in the later periods of Jewish history. Angels are more significant in the New Testament writings. Angels appear more frequently with the coming of Jesus, whom we call Lord.
  According to Jesus (Joshua in Hebrew) angels are personal, sinless, immortal beings, existing in great numbers, and in close relation with individuals and the history of the kingdom of God. They appear to us in human form. We know little of the history of the angels themselves.
  The denial of the existence of Angels comes from attempting to define them with natural or physical laws or facts. If in a research laboratory we attempted to define something in the chemical arena with laws of physics we would produce a lot of confusion and misunderstandings. Any theories derived from this method would be wrong and incomprehensible. The first thing in all growth of knowledge is to establish a basic truth in a particular arena and build on it.
  To comprehend angels or messengers from God, it is important to understand the foundation of their existence is in the spiritual realm, the realm beyond space and time. In my tradition we happen to call that the kingdom of God. Scripture for me is like the laboratory notes of other people. It is their understanding and conclusions built upon what others before them have discovered about the kingdom of God. Some theologians call this revelations, and I agree.
  In Scripture angels have real value to humans. They force us to widen our view and understanding of God's creation. They give us a better insight into the position of Christ. They give us a glimpse into the other world. The are an example of how God's perfect joy works. They also remind us of the high rank of human beings. Angels deliver us messages from God. Not speculations or opinions, but direct revelations of something God wants us to know. In a manner of speaking,  God simply eliminated the middle man (prophet) so there will be no misunderstanding.
Sunday, Dec 23, for the vast majority of Christians around the world is the Angel Sunday of Advent. It celebrates the direct revelation that the Messiah was being born that day. Not if you believe. It declares we believe for a fact the Messiah was born. Period! End of Story! Now build on that information or fact. Thank God for angels. If God had chosen to bring that information through inspiration to a human, we would have studied it six ways to Sunday and split seventy different ways in our interpretation. In the end nothing new would have come out of it except a lot of books stating opinions as fact. Thank God for angels. The angel that resides and oversees us agrees!